Mitchell, Boulez Win Polar Music Prizes

Joni Mitchell and classical composer Pierre Boulez were the joint recipients of the Polar Music prize in Stockholm May 8.

The two shared the prize money of 1 million kronor ($147,000), which was awarded to the winners at a ceremony in Stockholm's Berwald Hall by King Carl Gustav.

The Polar prize committee presents the award every year for achievement in music or achievements of great potential importance within the musical realm.

The committee praised Boulez for his "profound musicality, clear intelligence, and unusual farsightedness" and for his inspiration behind such projects as the Bastille Opera and the Cite de la Musique concert hall in Paris, exclusively devoted to new music.

Roxette's Marie Fredriksson paid tribute to Mitchell, praising her "early ideals of composition and arrangement, melodic simplicity, economy of instrumentation, and subtlety in the use of electronic instruments."

This was the fifth Polar ceremony: past recipients have included Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney, and Mstislav Rostropovich.

The award is funded via the Stig Anderson Music Prize fund of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. One-time Abba producer and manager Anderson gave a donation to the academy in 1989 with the aim of creating a music-field equivalent to the Nobel Prize.

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